How can I verify whether my new laptop has been tampered?

7 points

12 years ago

According to the news, the US government has intercepted laptops during delivery and installed surveillance kits or trojans. For example: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

My online activities may have attracted attention from USG (eg. looking at Al Jazeera, presstv and technical forums), and my new laptop, a Lenovo Thinkpad, was delayed a long time in customs. What should I look for to verify it has not been tampered?

Immediately upon receiving it, I replaced the default commercial-ware with Linux, so I am not concerned about the OS or applications. However, I'm wondering:

* how to tell whether it's been opened after the factory

* what parts can be opened "safely" meaning without breaking anything

* what to look for on the inside

* how to verify the BIOS is untampered

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